Nevada: Bad bill would make it nearly impossible to place voter initiatives on the ballot

Published: May 5, 2009

Here we go again. Some Nevada lawmakers are pushing a bill that would make it nearly impossible for citizens like you to place voter initiatives on the ballot. Please send your legislators an e-mail today in opposition to this legislation — SB 212. After you have e-mailed your legislators, please follow up with a call to your legislators and let them know that you oppose SB 212.

The bill has already passed the Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections and was subsequently assigned to the Senate Committee on Finance, where it was granted an extension for applicable deadlines. This means that SB 212 could be resurrected and brought to the floor for a vote any day now.

MPP has already sued the state twice over two similar restrictions on voter initiatives, and both times they have been declared unconstitutional. Some Nevada legislators are apparently determined to create a monopoly on the legislative process, and they just won't give up. This time, the tactic is to require ballot initiative proponents to gather signatures in all 42 Assembly districts. Not only does this make it harder for you to take part in the legislative process, it will create more work for county clerks whose counties overlap with Assembly districts.

Even worse, this bill mandates that your signature on a petition will not even be counted unless you know and write in your Assembly district at the time you sign the petition! This potential requirement will make it virtually impossible for a ballot initiative like Question 7, the campaign to tax and regulate marijuana that was on the ballot in 2006, to be placed on the ballot again. It makes it impossible for just about anything to be placed on the ballot ever again.

This is transparently undemocratic, and an outrage. Please be sure to e-mail and call your legislators and remind them that state ballot initiatives are one of this country's most democratic processes. Let your legislators know that when elected officials try to make it harder for voters to take part in this unique method of lawmaking it reflects poorly on them, whose very job it is to ensure that the lawmaking process is honest, transparent, and open to all who wish to participate.

Please be sure to forward this alert to everyone you know in Nevada who supports the initiative process. Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project and all of our allies.